A Shelby County, Tenn., deputy jailer has been arrested after he pocketed a $5 bill belonging to a suspect, the sheriff’s office said.

Lanandas McGhee, 40, who has worked with the sheriff’s office since 1997, was indicted Thursday on charges of official misconduct and theft of property worth less than $500. He was booked into the Shelby County jail Thursday evening, according to jail records.

Law enforcement officials say that on April 10, a suspect who was being taken into custody while appearing in court tried to conceal $45 cash in his mouth in the jail-intake area. The suspect threw the cash and other items in the trash, and another deputy jailer retrieved a $5 bill from the garbage, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

McGhee put the money in his pocket and said he would add it to the suspect’s books, according to law enforcement. McGhee told others that before he could do that, the suspect tried to flush the money down the toilet, an account authorities said they could not verify.

Later, McGhee asked a processing clerk to check whether a $5 bill was counterfeit, and it was legal tender, the sheriff’s office said. McGhee took the money back and put it in his back pocket, and the money was never turned in with the suspect’s property or recorded in any reports to the jailer’s supervisors, according to the sheriff’s office.